Plumbing assistance please!

[7up4it]

Hi,

Having a mare at the moment!

Last weekend I went round to my sisters to change her bath taps as the were leaking, fine I thought straight swop with identical taps she had already purchased.
Turned the cold water supply off, drained the hot water system, took off the old taps fitted the new ones, brilliant I thought jobs a good un!
Not so, the cold water went back on no problems works fine, the hot tap i couldn't test as I couldn't wait around for the tank to fill back up as i had to go out.
Anyway, sister rings saying no hot water from the hot tap in the bath................went round thinking it would be something simple, appears not! I can get hot water to flow for a few seconds before the tap "slams shut" (for want of a better description) with quite a jolt????
Have I got an air lock or is the insides of the tap playing up???

Your help would be greatly appreciated as i'm flummoxed!

Cheers

John

[Beobloke]

AIRLOCK!!

You've got a bubbble of air in the system somewhere that is stopping the water getting through. I had exactly the same problem when i changed the hot taps in the bathroom in our old house, but it affected all the hot taps in the house.

Following advice from a work colleague, the way i fixed it was as follows - turned hot mixer tap on in kitchen until the water stopped, then held my hand HARD over the end of the tap and turned the cold on - this forces the cold water back up the hot pipe and should clear the air out. I had to hold for about 15 seconds, when there was a big whoosh from the tank in the loft as the air came out and it was fine after that!

Apparently if you haven't got a mixer tap, you can do the same with normal taps by connecting a length of hose between the hot and the cold.

One thing that might be worth remebering in future, if you didn't do it, is to always turn all the taps in the house on before turning off the supply, and when you turn it back on leave them on until water is running from them all before turning them off - i forgot about the downstairs sink one when i did my tap change!

[7up4it]

Hi Beobloke,

If this works you are my hero! I will go round and try it tonight.

Many thanks for the advice.

Kind regards

John

[son_t]

Not that this is the right place... but...

My hot water system makes the sound of a ships horn each time I run a hot bath and lasts for a while... I suspect there's air trapped in the system but how do I fix this problems... no serious!

Tip 1: Can't get heating or hot water out of your system: check the pressure of the system before calling a plumber or heating engineer...

Tip 2: Got a combi boiler/heating system and it packs in? Get a heating engineer to 'service' (i.e. clean/flush the system of dirt and grit) before checking if it needs fixing or replacing...

[KillerOfThreads]

I fitted lever taps a while ago where a similar thing happned to the cold. It turned out to be the barrel was getting jammed when the tap was open and then suddenly releasing closing the washer/valve. I changed it for a new one and everything has been fine since.

[neilneil]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

AIRLOCK!!

You've got a bubbble of air in the system somewhere that is stopping the water getting through. I had exactly the same problem when i changed the hot taps in the bathroom in our old house, but it affected all the hot taps in the house.

Following advice from a work colleague, the way i fixed it was as follows - turned hot mixer tap on in kitchen until the water stopped, then held my hand HARD over the end of the tap and turned the cold on - this forces the cold water back up the hot pipe and should clear the air out. I had to hold for about 15 seconds, when there was a big whoosh from the tank in the loft as the air came out and it was fine after that!

Apparently if you haven't got a mixer tap, you can do the same with normal taps by connecting a length of hose between the hot and the cold.

I'm glad that obviously worked for you but I thought that the mixer taps, by law in this country had to have the hot and cold as separate feeds right up to the point that the water comes out of the tap.
The water then mixes in the air as it falls from the tap. This is to stop old hot water contaminating drinking water. If the water mixed in the tap and you then turned on cold only for a drink you would have got the remains of the hot still left in the mixer tap.

-Neil

[llangefniboy]

There's a professional plumber at Moneysavingexpert.com who gives advice free. If you're stuck, give him a try, he's very good: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...poster&t=22302